The Horror of It All

Scottish actor Ewan Mcgregor was "filled with horror" when he watched Michael Keaton's movie Birdman. The Trainspotting star saw the film, in which Keaton plays a failing actor attempting to revive his career by appearing in a play, shortly before he began a stint in Broadway show The Real Thing last year (14).
McGregor admits the Oscar-winning movie hit him hard as he prepared to take to the stage.
He tells British newsman Piers Morgan, "I did (see Birdman). It filled me with horror... I loved the movie. I just watched it as I was about to start a new play on Broadway and it was all a bit close to home."

Director Christopher Nolan's sci-fi drama Interstellar was the big winner at the 2015 Jameson Empire Awards in London on Sunday night (29Mar15), picking up three of the event's top honours. The movie was named Best Film, while Nolan picked up the Best Director and Inspiration awards.
There were also big wins for Kingsman: The Secret Service (Best British Film), Paddington (Best Comedy) and The Imitation Game (Best Thriller), while The Babadook and X-Men: Days Of Future Past also picked up movie awards.
And Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) took home the top acting prizes.
Serkis was a surprise winner, beating out the likes of Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Armitage and Bradley Cooper.
Accepting his award at Grosvenor Park hotel, he said, "I'm really thrilled and excited because finally, performance capture is respected across the board and considered on par as any other actor. You can't compare performances. They're all good and different but I'm glad I have touched audiences as much as a live actor can and been recognised for it."
Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes collected the night's Legend Award from his Schindler's List co-star Liam Neeson and joked about his new title, stating, "The 'L' word is for dead people... I'm flattered, but it's not the case. It's lovely but you've got to bat it away with appreciation because I don't feel like a legend for a moment."
The full list of 2015 Empire Awards winners is:
Empire Legend - Ralph Fiennes
Empire Hero - Game Of Thrones
Empire Inspiration - Christopher Nolan
Best Newcomer: Male - Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service)
Best Newcomer: Female - Karen Gillan (Guardians Of The Galaxy & Oculus)
Best Sci-fi/Fantasy - X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Best Horror - The Babadook
Best Comedy - Paddington
Best Thriller - The Imitation Game
Best British Film - Kingsman: The Secret Service
Best Actor - Andy Serkis (Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes)
Best Actress - Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
Best Director - Christopher Nolan (Interstellar)
Best Film - Interstellar.

Veteran actress Jessica Lange is bowing out of hit U.S. TV drama American Horror Story after four seasons on the show.
The King Kong star, 65, has announced she will not be checking into the upcoming American Horror Story: Hotel, the fifth season of Glee creator Ryan Murphy's anthology series. Breaking the news to fans during a panel discussion for last year's (14) American Horror Story: Freak Show at the PaleyFest event in Los Angeles on Sunday (15Mar15).
She said, "We've had a great run. I have absolutely loved doing these four characters, and in all the madness, I loved the writers, actors, Ryan, the whole insanity of it, the stories, shooting here, shooting in New Orleans, everything... To cut to the chase, yes, I'm done." She went on to brand her time on the show an "extraordinary experience" and revealed she could no longer dedicate her time to the series because signing up for each season "is a huge investment".
However, Lange admits she is enjoying her newfound fame among younger audiences, particularly after playing powerful witch The Supreme in season three's Coven shows. She recalls, "Months after we finished the third season, I'm walking down the street in New Orleans in raggedy jeans, a dirty T-shirt, and it's like 150 degrees. I walk past this group of young boys sitting on these steps, and as I walk past, they say, 'Holy s**tballs. The Supreme.' And I thought, In my 40 years of acting, it's never going to get better than this.'
American Horror Story: Hotel will not be short of stars - Lady Gaga has signed up for a role in the show, while Magic Mike's Matt Bomer and Glee actor Cheyenne Jackson will be among the other new additions to the line-up when it premieres this autumn (15).

Actress Nikki Reed testified in the California State Capitol on Tuesday (03Mar15) and helped pass a bill for animal rights. The outspoken animal activist paid a visit to Sacramento to testify on behalf of Assembly Bill 147, which gives cats and dogs the opportunity to be adopted after they have been used in scientific testing.
Prior to speaking to members of the State Assembly, the Twilight star took to Instagram.com to urge her followers to back the bill, writing, "Heading to The State Capitol to testify for #AB147 - animals used for science should not be discarded - the cruelty that they endure being used for research purposes is harsh enough - let's not further the abuse by claiming that rescues are not equipped to help them live out the rest of their lives peacefully.
"I need you guys! We have one hour before the hearing. Please call and encourage Assembly members... to support this legislation. Yes to AB147 supporting the right for cats and dogs to be adopted after they've been tested on."
Reed even shared a snap of herself in front of the Capitol with a pet Beagle, adding, "I'm wiith Emma, a survivor from a San Francisco testing facility. The holes in her ears are a testament to the horror she endured."
The bill eventually passed, and Reed later shared the good news with her followers: "We did it! Higher Ed passed #AB147!!!... What a long day, a beautiful day, a day that has left me with a fire burning inside my soul- round two is next- Senate, here we come!
"The fight isn't over, but thanks to all of you - the thousands of you that called in earlier - we cleared the first hurdle. I love you guys. Truly."
Reed's actor fiance and fellow animal lover Iam Somerhalder praised his bride-to-be's activism in a post on his own Instagram page, writing, "Wishing I could be there to support @iamnikkireed and the bill she is testifying in favour of. I am hoping we bring awareness to an issue that most don't know anything about. Testing on beagles for research purposes and then simply discarding them is nothing short of inhumane. Let's shine a light on the truth behind how we come to deem products acceptable for human use."

The director of critically-acclaimed new horror film Avenged used a real life Apache warrior killed by American settlers to inspire the vengeful spirit haunting his movie. In Michael S. Ojeda's new film, the soul of Mangas Coloradas comes back to life in the carcass of a murdered deaf girl, raped by a group of New Mexico thugs, who are descendants of the U.S. General who killed the Native American chief in 1890.
Filmmaker Ojeda reveals he went to great lengths to make sure his film's plot and characters were historically accurate - because he didn't want to upset Apache elders.
He tells WENN, "The spirit in the film is based on a real Apache warrior called Mangas Coloradas... In 1890 he met with this U.S. general, called Joseph Rodman West, to form a peace treaty between the Apache and the American settlers, and instead they (settlers) captured the old Indian chief, beheaded him, boiled his head and sent the skull to the Smithsonian (Museum), but to this day the Smithsonian say they don't have the skull.
"I thought, 'Why not have this racist gang made up of his descendants - and they have the skull?' It all sort of came together nicely."
"I did give the script to a few Native Americans, a couple who were Apache, and they loved it - and that validated the story for me."
But as Ojeda prepares for the film's wide release in the U.S. later this month (Mar15), he fears it may upset the family of Joseph Rodman West.
He adds, "So far, nobody has felt it (film) was offensive. If anything, I think Joseph Rodman West's family might complain about the depiction of his descendants being these hillbillies with a collection of Apache skulls. But ultimately, this is the story of a warrior who was really wronged in history."

Madonna has risked upsetting her European fans by comparing many mainland countries to Nazi Germany. The pop superstar, who was promoting her new album Rebel Heart in a BBC interview, revealed she's concerned about the future of France and other nations.
The 56 year old said, "(Album song) Ghosttown is like, for me, a kind of foreshadowing of two people living, like, the only lovers left alive in a post-apocalyptic world. I feel like that's where we're heading for if we continue to behave the way we behave, to treat one another the way we're treating one another, to maintain this level of intolerance and discriminatory prejudice... hateful behaviour towards other human beings who are different than you are.
"France was once a country that accepted people of colour. It was once a place that artists escaped to, whether it was Josephine Baker or Charlie Parker or writers, painters, whatever. It was a country that embraced everyone and that encouraged freedom in every way, shape, or form - freedom of expression, artistic freedom, for example.
"Now, it's completely gone... It's like we're living in a crazy time. It feels like, you know, Nazi Germany. All of these people... the intolerance, the level of intolerance that's going on is really scary.
"It's not just happening in France, it's all over Europe, but it's specifically in France. Anti-Semitism, I think, is at an all-time high, people are becoming, behaving, and reacting in extremely fearful ways, so it's scary."
Her comments come a month after the horror of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris, where gunmen shot and killed 12 people at the publication's headquarters over cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad.
At the time, Madonna took to Instagram and wrote, "These are very scary times we are living in. Ignorance breeds Intolerance and fear. We can only fight darkness with light! We are all Charlie!"

Actress Olivia Wilde was convinced she had caught the measles bug while working on new horror movie The Lazarus Effect after bursting all the blood vessels in her face during a tense scene.
The Tron: Legacy star plays a girl who is brought back from the dead in the thriller, and reveals she became concerned for her health after little red dots started covering her face following a shoot which involved her hanging upside down and screaming for a long period of time. She explains, "I had these weird dots everywhere, like red dots, all over my face and I thought I was breaking out in measles or something, and the medic said, 'No, you broke all your blood vessels', and it stayed like that for a while. It kind of worked for the role, so it was OK."
Wilde also had to contend with blindness due to the colored contact lenses she had to wear for the role to make her eyes look dark and bloodshot. She says, "I could not see, I was totally blind, so they'd lead me onto the set and say, 'The other actors are sitting here and here.' It was kind of insane... (but) it was fun."
The actress filmed The Lazarus Effect in 2013, but was called back for reshoots last spring (14), when she was heavily pregnant with her son Otis, and she admits her impending motherhood took the horror aspect to a whole new level. She tells U.S. breakfast show Today, "We did reshoots and I was eight and a half months pregnant so if you look really closely, you may be able to tell, maybe I'm a little puffier (in the face), but it was really funny because the image of me with the lenses and the death make-up and this huge belly, it was like a whole different horror movie."

Relativity Media via Everett Collection
Friday night means date night and we've got the movie to watch. The Lazarus Effect is a movie about a group of medical students who discover a way to bring dead patients back to life. Freaky!
The Lazarus Effect follows a group of researchers led by Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancée Zoe (Olivia Wilde,) who've achieved the unimaginable- bringing the dead back to life. After a successful, yet unsanctioned, trial on a newly deceased animal, the team is ready to unveil their breakthrough to the world. When the dean of their university learns of their underground experiments, their project is unexpectedly shut down and their materials confiscated. Frank, Zoe and their team (Donald Glover, Sarah Bolger and Evan Peters) take matters into their own hands, launching a rogue attempt to recreate their experiment, during which things go terribly wrong and one of their own, Zoe, is horrifically killed. Fueled by terror and grief, Frank pushes them to do the unthinkable: attempt to resurrect their first human test subject. Initially, the procedure appears a success, but the team soon realizes something is wrong with Zoe. They are no longer faced with the question of whether they can bring someone back to life- but rather, the wrath of her return. #EvilWillRise
1. Olivia Wilde kills it as the newest horror movie babe:
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2. The cast is a stellar group of actors who can all master being serious and funny (oh, and terrified out of their minds):
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3. It's not an overused plot of demons/zombies/etc. It's something newer and exciting:
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4. It will scare the pants right off of you:
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5. And obviously, Evan Peters is the hunkiest date for a date night movie:
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To add onto the perfect date night, we've got a giveaway to match - here's how to enter:
1. Follow @hollywood_com
2. RT
RT &amp; Follow us for a chance to win a gift card &amp; movie merchandise for the #LazarusEffectGiveaway #EvilWillRise http://t.co/hhr2KYbxox
— HOLLYWOOD.COM (@Hollywood_com) February 26, 2015
This prize packs includes:
- $25 gift card- Hoodie- Flashlight- Syringe Pen- Mini Poster
The Lazarus Effect is in theaters Friday February 27, 2015. Only one winner will be chosen. You must be a U.S. resident to enter. This prize pack's approximate value is $50.00.

We've already discussed Easter Eggs in movies and the many ways filmmakers create in-jokes and references for savvy viewers and those in the know, but today we're taking a look at filmmakers referencing other filmmakers (or their stars...or themselves). We bet you'll never watch these movies the same way again.
Honoring Directors They Admire:
1. Star Wars in Star Trek
Paramount Pictures
It's no surprise that Super 8 director J. J. Abrams is a Star Wars fan, but we bet you never caught R2-D2's appearance in both Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness. It looks like Star Wars: The Force Awakens won't be Abrams' first time with the Star Wars world.
Giving a Nod To Its Stars' Careers
2. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion's wink at Quentin Tarantino
Buena Vista Pictures
The comedy has a few subtle references to Quentin Tarantino's film universe. At the time, Mira Sorvino (Romy) was dating Tarantino. Thus, the keen eye can discern a Big Kahuna Burger take-out bag behind Michele's head in the scene where they pig out and decide to emulate top female executives. In one of the next scenes, an ad for Red Apple Cigarettes can be seen behind their car. Both of these brands were made up by Tarantino for his films. Red Apple cigarettes can be seen in films like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Four Rooms, and From Dusk Til Dawn.
3. Bruce Willis' Favorite Song
20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
Die Hard With A Vengeance has a Pulp Fiction reference in it! Who knew? Bruce Willis' Pulp Fiction character, Butch, is driving around while "Flowers on the Wall" by the Statley Brothers plays on his radio and he sings along before running into Marsellus Wallace. Die Hard's John McClane exits a cab in the 1995 film with Samuel L. Jackson and references his time suspended by reciting the same lyrics from Pulp Fiction: "I was working on a nice fat suspension. Smokin cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo." Willis starred in Pulp Fiction with Jackson between Die Hard 2 and Die Hard With A Vengeance.
4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Rango
sodahead.com
The beginning of Rango features the Johnny Depp-voiced reptile landing on the windshield of a convertible driven by none other than Duke and Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Johnny Depp paying tribute to Johnny Depp.
5. Adam Brody in Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith
20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
Okay, maybe everyone just really loves Fight Club and Brad Pitt, right? In the 2005 rom-com action movie, Seth Cohen plays the man they're both assigned to kill, which is how they realize they're both spies. The whole time, Brody is wearing a Fight Club t-shirt. It's pretty obvious whose side he's on.
6. Fight Club Starring Brad Pitt
20 Century Fox
Fight Club has a bunch of hidden gems in it, including advertisements for its main stars. Theater marquees within the movie advertise films starring Brad Pitt (Seven Years In Tibet), Edward Norton (The People Vs. Larry Flynt), and even Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove, although it's obscured by a bus in the scene, so this is questionable).
Paying Homage To Themselves:
7. The Social Network's Tyler Durden
Columbia Pictures
Fight Club's director David Fincher has also been known to reference his own movies. In The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg uses Facebook for help on an Art History assignment. The profile he's viewing? Tyler Durden's.
8. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
Warner Bros.
In the Tim Burton adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic, Charlie's father works for Smilex toothpaste factory; this is a reference to the poison Joker unleashed on Gotham in the Burton-directed Batman by hiding it in their toothpaste. During a tour of the factory, Wonka walks by a room of pink sheep as he says, "I'd rather not talk about this one." While this may just seem like a way to accentuate his eccentricity, Burton's actually referencing his Ed Wood biopic, also starring Johnny Depp; director Ed Wood was a notorious cross-dresser with an affinity for pink wool. In other scenes throughout the movie, children in the Halloween flashback wear masks of Lock, Shock, and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas and a door in the factory is marked "BeetleJuicing."
9. Before Sunrise/Waking Life/Dazed and Confused
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Oscar-nominated writer-director Richard Linklater's film worlds seem to intersect at times. Like when Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters Jesse and Celine from Before Sunrise in the rotoscope dream movie Waking Life, which they then reference in Before Sunset. But there are subtler ways in which the films inhabit the same world: pinball. The same pinball machine can be found in at least three of Linklater's films: Waking Life, Before Sunrise, and Dazed and Confused.
10. Friends With Benefits picks up Easy A
Screen Gems
Director Will Gluck references his 2010 hit comedy Easy A in the totally-okay-but-not-as-successful 2011 film Friends With Benefits. The sign at the airport for an "O. Penderghast" alludes to Emma Stone's character in Easy A. Stone appears in both films and is flawless in both.
Paying Tribute To Other Directors:
11. Indiana Jones/Star Wars/E.T.
Paramount Pictures
R2-D2 makes another appearance - this time in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg paid tribute to Indiana Jones writer George Lucas by including hieroglyphics of the Star Wars droid in the 1981 film. Three years later, Spielberg did it again by naming a club in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom after Obi-Wan Kenobi.
12. E.T. in Star Wars
20th Century Fox
And then George Lucas thanks Steven Spielberg by featuring E.T. the Extra Terrestrial in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
13. Evil Dead 2/Nightmare on Elm Street
Paramount Pictures
Director Sam Raimi pays homage to Wes Craven in Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn by sneaking iconic slasher Freddy Krueger's glove in the background of a few scenes.
Paying Tribute To The Genre:
14. Scream
GIPHY/reddit.com
Scream is more jam-packed with references than most other movies. It's basically a two-hour homage to the horror genre entirely. The character Billy Loomis borrows his last name from Psycho's Sam Loomis before quoting Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. The janitor outside Principal Himbry's office (played by director Wes Craven himself) is named Fred and wears Freddy Krueger's iconic striped shirt. The film is so saturated with in-jokes and references that it's pretty easy for even the most savvy viewers to miss Scream Queen Linda Blair's brief cameo. Take comfort in understanding the constant name-checking of other horror flicks.

"I'm sorry I scared the bejesus out of you with all my big ideas: To float out the second-storey window with an umbrella like Mary Poppins into a pile of leaves below when I was five. To ride my bike off the big rocks into the ocean on a dare when I was eight. To sneak out and see Rocky Horror at midnight when I was 13. To drop out of college. To try chewing tobacco. To be an actor." Tea Leoni apologies to her parents for putting them through hell.